On July 8, 2025, we lost my grandfather. I missed him by about 36 hours. I landed the next day at 5pm. I will forever be grateful to my cousin who called me on FaceTime so I could say my goodbyes. Thank God (Buddha) for modern technology.

If I’m being honest, I’ve been ready for his passing for a while now. I mean, the man is old (92 years old – he would’ve been 93 in September). And as ready as I was for his passing, it doesn’t suck any less. I loved him and am so grateful to have had him in my life. I’m so glad he’s at peace and that he’s with my grandmother on their forever honeymoon (as my cousins have been saying).

I will also say, I’m glad I didn’t have to write a eulogy this time. I had to write one for my grandmother when she passed (19 years ago), and that was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do. I also had to create the slideshow at that time, as well. This time, I contributed photos.

The crazy part about the whole thing (because of our Lao culture) is that the funeral was essentially 1 week long. That meant that as soon as I got off the plane, I was headed to the airport with no chance to shower, change, or sleep.

The week of the funeral was organized chaos. I mean, the General (my great aunt) was in charge after all.

My grandfather was a great man who had spent 93 years on this earth. He and my grandmother had 10 children (1 passing away at a very young age). The 9 surviving children made it across the Pacific Ocean with their parents. One landed in Canada, one landed in Minnesota, and the rest were all in the Chicago-land area. Each of those 9 children got married and had 2-3 children each. To say the least, I had a huge family and a lot of cousins. Today, some of those cousins have their own children, and so our family is even larger.

Some of us were lucky to be raised by them for a portion of our lives. While my grandmother would help take care of us at home (making sure we were fed and clean. My grandfather would be in charge of drop-offs and pick-ups. We learned to garden with him and to love life and appreciate the things we had. He would take us to give bread to the ducks at the lake. He taught us what it meant to be Buddhist (he became a monk later in life). He showed us how to love our family. He made us strong and he always championed us. He did his best to teach us the difference between right and wrong. As his grandchildren, we were the first generation to grow up between 2 cultures. He instilled in us a strong sense of being Lao and being proud of where we came from. While the world around us showed us what it meant to be an American. He and Grandma were the pillars of our family.

He will be missed. He also has nothing to worry about when it comes to his family. He taught us to stand on our own two feet, to be there for each other, and to stand proud.